Did the civil rights movement have an impact on the whole of the US
population or just African-Americans?

On the entire population, because the Civil Rights acts effected not
only Blacks and other minorities, but women as well. It changed the way
that some white americans looked upon our life in the U.S., as well, as
causing extreme hatred in others by the changes in the legal system.

The civil rights movement had an impact on the whole world, the US
culture, law and consciousness, and the people who were involved in it.
It exposed the institutional nature of racism and it showed that if
people organize they can change history. That has been an enduring and
inspiring lesson for millions and still impacts movements today. It had
a specific impact in helping to inspire the women's movement, lgbtq
struggles for justice, immigration reform and more. It has inspired
people in Egypt and in Tiannamen Square. It helped to change the laws
and the politics of this country. And it certainly made a difference on
those who were part of it — so many, many (Black and
White) continuing to work to build a better society. We still have a
long way to go, but the impact of the movement was extraordinary in all
parts of the society.

I think one big way in which it had an affect on everybody is that
prior to the Movement we had been brought up in an environment in which
if you want something changed, you either asked your politician to pass
a law or you go to court and sue. But change was not something that you
could do or influence yourself. I think the Civil Rights movement taught
a whole generation that you can go out and take charge of your own
history. I think people have done that in an enormous variety of ways.
People of our generation went out and did everything from getting stop
signs put in on their corner to starting whole social movements. It
certainly reinvigorated the labor movement. I think that Cesar Chavez
and that whole movement directly flew out of the Civil Rights movement.

And directly growing out of the Civil Rights Movement were similar
movements on behalf of women, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, the
disabled and others. Many of the legal rights won by the Civil Rights
Movement were applied to all those groups, and their movements used many
of the same strategies, tactics, and arguments as the Civil Rights
Movement. The student free speech movement was started by veterans of
the Freedom Movement, and many Movement veterans were active leaders in
the anti-Vietnam war movement. Today, the gay rights movement is using
many of the strategies and tactics of the Civil Rights Movement.

In broader terms, the Movement changed the consciousness of society at
large. Prior to the Movement, overt racism was a normal and accepted
aspect of American life, now racism has been to some degree driven
underground and forced to disguise itself. In the 1950s TV programs
thought nothing of using racist language like "coon," "shine," and
"n-----" in dramas and "comedies" and most non-white people were shown
as racist stereotypes and caricatures such as Stepenfetchit, Amos &
Andy, the Pancho (Cisco Kid), and so on. And businesses used racist
names, logos, images, symbols and advertising without a second thought.
Now that is no longer the case.

In politics, mainstream politicians of both parties like Strom Thurmond,
Jesse Helms, and their current day successors proudly proclaimed
themselves to be racists, made public speeches avowing the inherent
racial superiority of white Europeans and the genetic inferiority of all
non-white, non-Christian people, and campaigned on explicitly racist
platforms. Now they deny that they are racists and they have to disguise
their agenda.

Before the Movement, it used to be perfectly acceptable in white middle-
class homes to make "darky," "polack," "kike," "spick," and "wop" jokes
at the dinner table. Miscegenation laws made marriage or sex between
black men and white women illegal in a third of the states in the union,
and people were put in jail for committing the crime of inter-racial
marriage. (Sex between white men and Black women was technically illegal
too, but rape of Black women by white men was so common as to be an
accepted part of the "southern way of life.") The Freedom Movement made
that kind of overt racism unthinkable in today's society. (Covert
racism, of course, still flourishes in all its myriad ugly forms.)

I think the Civil Rights movement had an impact on the whole
United States population. I feel that the Civil Rights movement
not only benefited Black people and other minorities, but it also
benefited white people. I think it gave a lot of white people a chance
to really open up their eyes and see what was going on.

I can remember back in the Fifties and Sixties when people became aware
of segregation. There were two water fountains, one Black and one white.
Two bathrooms, one Black and one white. There were certain places where
if you were of a certain group, you weren't allowed in at all. I've
always believed that there was some right-thinking white people that
felt the same way about all these things that were going on as I do. So
I think it's opened a lot of white people's minds. I feel they benefited
from that.

And back in the Sixties, not only Black people were getting killed for
challenging the system, but you had a number of white people that were
also killed for challenging the system. Like you had James Goodman and
Mickey Schwerner in Mississippi. You had Viola Liuzzo and Reverend James
Reeb in Alabama, and you had a number of other people that were killed.